United States’ Role in Terrorism by Guatemalan Government

Kenneth Freed’s article “Killing Fields of Guatemala Persist Despite U.S. Effort” (April 14) was gratifying for one reason: the fact that it appeared at all. Some 100,000 Guatemalans dead and 40,000 disappeared in 26 years is indeed staggering. Yet the story continues to go largely unreported in the U.S. press.

Surprising? It shouldn’t be. The CIA helped overthrow Arbenz’s democratically elected government in 1954 for advocating land reform and human rights (a fact omitted from Freed’s otherwise good piece). Since then U.S. tax dollars have paid for death-squad thugs to “disappear,” torture and murder anyone they deem “dissident.”

The ambivalence of the U.S. Embassy official quoted on whether human-rights progress is “still a requirement of U.S. aid” to Guatemala belies our foreign policy’s double standard: We champion popular movements that overturn “hostile” communist tyrants, but criticize rebellion against “friendly,” right-wing butchers and murderers.

SANDY LEJEUNE

Boyle Heights